I am part of a collaborative project studying the ecology and evolution of African Acacia trees (genera Vachellia and Senegalia).

My focus has been the creation and management of a common garden experiment in Arusha, Tanzania, with collaborators at Nelson Mandela - African Institution of Science and Technology. This research used rainout shelters to artificially create drought by intercepting and removing all rainfall.

The experiment was a full-factorial; Acacia seedlings were subjected to drought, fire, and herbivory in all combinations.

This experiment forms the basis for a recurring statistics course that I co-teach at NM-AIST with Dr. Shira Mitchell.